Apparatus for producing slivers



10 1957 F. KALWAITES 3,34

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING SLIVERS Filed March 22, 1965 INVENTOR.

F/P/m/ A541 1444/ 7155 ATTQRNE y United States Patent 3,345,700 APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING SLIVERS Frank Kalwaites, Somerville, N.J., assignor to Johnson & Johnson, a corporation of New Jersey Filed Mar. 22, 1%5, Ser. No. 441,612 2 Claims. (Cl. 19-150) This invention relates to methods for manufacturing sliver and apparatus therefor, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for producing sliver directly from the dofling mechanism of a card engine.

In standard carding operations the fibers being carded are removed from the dofiing cylinder in the form of a wide fibrous web. The side edges of the web are conveyed triangularly towards the center of the web as the web passes through a trumpet, then to a pair of calender rolls which further condenses and drafts the web to form the desired sliver. The standard technique has various disadvantages in that the fibers along the edges of the web have to pass a greater distance than the fibers in the center of the web, and hence various areas of the web are drafted in different manners and are under different de grees of control during the sliver formation operation. Furthermore, generally the web floats of its own accord from the dofiing mechanism to the trumpet and may well be disrupted by air currents which can distort the web and produce a non-uniform sliver.

I have discovered an improved method and apparatus for producing sliver directly from fibrous webs. In my improved techniques the fibers are under positive control at all times until the sliver is formed. The web is never subjected to air currents or allowed to be distorted. Furthermore, in my improved techniques the standard calen der rolls and trumpet are removed, thus eliminating uncontrolled drafting. In my improved techniques fibers in the fibrous web may be straightened and drafted under excellent control and held in their drafted position until the sliver is formed. Also my improved apparatus may be operated at much higher speeds without distortion of the fibrous web or distortion of the final sliver, thus making my system very economical and also allowing for the production of very light slivers which is extremely difiicult to produce on conventional standard equipment.

In accordance with the present invention the fibrous web after being formed is continuously conveyed in a first direction. Generally this is the direction in which the fibrous web has been formed, especially if formed on standard carding machines. The leading edge of the continuously conveyed web is moved and conveyed at substantially right angles to the initial direction of the web, thus uniformly taking off the leading edge of the fibrous web in the form of a sliver.

In operation the fibrous web which is usually produced on a carding machine is'doffed therefrom by any of the various dofiing techniques, such as comb doffing, roller dofiing, etc. The web which is moving in the machine direction, i.e. the direction of formation, is passed through a pair of cooperating rolls which form a nip. Cooperating with the opposite side of the nip formed by the pair of rolls is a movable surface, preferably a narrow V-belt, moving at substantially right angles to the direction of movement of the fibrous web through the nip. Immediately on passing through the nip this moving surface conveys the fibers of the leading edge of the fibrous web away from the remainder of the web in a continuous manner and at right angles thereto forming the sliver. If desired, the narrow movable surface may be operated at surface linear speeds greater than the surface linear speed of the web as it passes through the nip of the cooperating rolls. This difference in speed will straighten and draft the fibers as they are taken off at right angles to the lead- 3,345,700 Patented Oct. 10, 1967 ing edge of the fibrous Web to produce the desired final sliver.

In the accompanying drawings and following specification, I have illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the methods and apparatus embodying my invention, but it is to be understood that my invention is not to be considered limited to the embodiments disclosed except as determined by the scope of the appended claims.

With reference to the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation view of apparatus embodying the present invention, and

FIGURE 2 is a top view of the apparatus of FIG- URE 1.

Referring to the drawings FIGURES l and 2, there is shown a conventional doffing cylinder 10 of a standard carding machine (not shown). Fibers are carded and placed on the dofiing cylinder in the form of a very light, loose, thin fibrous web. The direction of rotation of the dofiing cylinder is illustrated by the directional arrow. The web is removed from the dofiing cylinder by a roller dofi'ing mechanism comprising a pair of rotatable rolls 11 and 12. These rolls may be smooth-faced or slightly roughened or even covered with pins if desired. Furthermore, various other dofiing mechanisms may be substituted for the roller dofiing mechanism shown. An example of such a mechanism would be the standard dofiing comb.

After the web is doffed from the dofiing cylinder, it is passed through a pair of rotatable rolls 13 and 14 which form a nip 15. Cooperating with this nip is a V-belt 16 which runs in the nip and along the. length of the nip, that is at right angles to the direction of travel of the web. The V-belt is carried on two pulleys 17 and 18, one of which pulleys is driven and the other being an idler pulley. The bottom side of the V belt rests against or is just removed from the face of the bottom nip roll, and the top side of the V-belt rests against or is just slightly away from the surface of the top nip roll. In this way the two nip rolls and the V-belt form a restrained cavity 20. The V-belt is driven at speeds the same as or greater than the surface linear speed of the nip rolls so that as the leading edge of the fibrous web passes through the nip 15, it is substantially immediately conveyed away from the nip at substantially right angles thereto in the form of a sliver 19. If the belt is driven at a faster speed than the speed of the nip rolls, the fibers will be straightened and drafted. The surface of this belt may be relatively smooth or it may be slightly roughened or if desired may have short pins on the surface thereof to give bet- 7 ter control on individual fibers. The web after being doffed is immediately passed to this restrained cavity formed by the nip and the V-belt, and hence is under complete control at all times until the sliver is formed. The sliver is delivered from one end of the restraining cavity of the nip and is passed by conventional rolls on to a conventional coiler can.

If a roller dofiing mehanism is used, the V-belt may be placed at the outlet side of the dotting nip for even greater control over the fibrous web at all times.

The starting web or layer of fibers which may be processed in accordance with the present invention may contain natural or synthetic, vegetable, animal or mineral fibers, such as cotton, silk, wool, vicuna, mohair, alpaca, flax, ramie, jute, abaca, etc. Synthetic or man-made fibers, such as the cellulosic fibers, notably cuprammonium; viscose or regenerated cellulose fibers; crosslinked cellulose fibers, such as Corval and Topel; cellulose, ester fibers, such as cellulose acetate (Celsnese) and cellulose triacetate (Arnel); the saponified cellulose ester fibers, such as Fortisan and Fortisan- 36; the polyamide fibers, such as nylon 420, nylon 6,

nylon 66, etc.; protein fibers, such as Vicara; halogenated hydrocarbon fibers, such as Teflon; hydrocarbon fibers, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyisobutylene, etc.; polyester fibers, such as Kodel and Dacron; vinyl fibers, such as Vinyon and saran; dynitril fibers, such as Darvan; nitrile fibers, such as Zefran; acrylic fibers, such as Dynel, Verel, Orlon, etc.; mineral fibers such as glass, metal, etc.

The fibers in the starting web may vary in length from about /2 inch to about 2% inches or more in length depending upon the particular properties and characteristics required or desired in the resulting slivers. If desired, the fibrous layer may contain a minor proportion less than about 50% by weight and preferably less than about 25% by Weight of fibers other than those of textile length. These other fibers may be papermaking length which extend from about inch in length down to about inch in length, which shorter fibers normally cannot be used in conventional methods of producing strands or yarns. The denier of the individual fibers is preferably in the range of the approximate thickness of the natural fibers mentioned, and consequently deniers in the range of from about 1 to about 5 are preferred. However, deniers as low as /2 and as high as may also be used.

The weight of the fibrous web or layer of starting material may vary within relatively wide limits, depending upon the requirements of the intermediate or the completed products. A single thin web of fibers, such as produced by a card and presented by the dofiing cylinder may have a Weight of about to about 250 or more grains per square yard and may be used in the application of the principles of the present invention. It is of course appreciated that the heavier the starting web, the heavier will be the strand produced, all other things being equal. The starting layer may be produced by any of the known mechanisms such as the conventional card machine, etc. If a card engine is used, the web may be removed from the dofiing cylinder by any of the known roller doffing techniques which utilize two rolls or a roll and a blade or by suction dofiing techniques, comb doifing mechanisms, etc.

The web is passed through the nip formed by a pair of rolls. These rolls may be smooth-faced, have a slightly roughened face, a knurled surface, contain flutes, etc. If desired, pressure may be applied by these rolls in order to crush trash present in the web, especially if cotton fibers are being processed. If desired, the axis of one roll may be placed at an angle to the axis of the other roll to increase the available pressure which may be applied to the web as well as aiding in the uniformity of the pressure applied.

It is important that the rolls be of relatively small diameter so that the outlet end of the nip combined with the V-belt will form a substantially enclosed cavity. Rolls having diameters from about 1%. inches up to about 6 inches have been found suitable. It is preferred that scavenger blades 23 and 24 shown in FIGURE 1 be utilized with the rolls to prevent lap-around and build-up of fibers on these rolls.

The moving surface cooperating with the nip of the rolls is preferably a V-belt as the inverted (V) fits the contour of rolls in the desired manner; however, other narrow moving surfaces may be used, such as a flat belt or other shaped narrow conveyor means. It is preferred that this belt operate at a surface linear speed greater than the speed which the web passes through the nip so that the fibers are drafted as they are pulled away from the leading edge of the web at right angles thereto. This increase in speed gives much better control over the fibers as they are being formed into the sliver. Speed ratios of moving surface to nip rolls of from about 1.121 to 3:1 or even faster have been found suitable in accordance with the method and apparatus of the present invention. If desired, the cooperating nip rolls which form the cavity with the moving right angled surface may be used also as the doffing means for the doifing cylinder.

In the drawings no driving means such as motors, pulleys, belts, gears, sprockets, and the like, have been illustrated for the doffing cylinder, the dofiing mechanism, the pair of nip rolls, or the right-angled moving surface. It must be understood that this has been done because such driving means are conventional and well known in the art. Additionally, their omission from the drawings makes the individual figures thereof less complicated and easier to read and to understand.

The above detailed description of this invention has been given for clearness of understanding only. No unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom as modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for producing a sliver of textile fibers comprising: a first rotatable surface for forming a fibrous web, doffing means for removing said fibrous web from said first rotatable surface, a pair of rotatable rolls cooperating to form a nip through which the fibrous web is passed, a narrow belt, having a run thereof adjacent the nip and within the area defined by the exterior surfaces of said rotatable rolls to form a restraining cavity therebetween, said belt moving at substantially right angles to the direction of the fibrous material, as it is passed through said nip and said belt moving at a surface linear speed at least equal to the speed of said fibrous material as it passes through said nip to continuously convey the entire leading edge of said fibrous web at substantially right angles to the direction it is moving when passing through said nip, whereby the web is continuously converted into a uniform sliver of textile fibers while maintaining the fibers under positive uniform control.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, the nip formed by the rotatable rolls is a pressure nip, whereby trash and waste particles present in the fibrous web are crushed as said web passes through the nip, the narrow belt is a V-belt and said V-belt moves at a surface linear speed greater than the speed of the fibrous material as it passes through the nip, whereby the sliver formed is uniformly drafted.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 816,417 3/1906 Ainley 1915O 2,825,937 3/1958 Guimbretiere et a1. 19-150 X 2,976,580 3/1961 Riedel 19-150 3,003,195 10/1961 Varga 19--106 X 3,161,920 12/1964 Stalego 19-150 X 3,259,945 7/1966 Zoch 19--106 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,387 1856 Great Britain. 6,437 1891 Great Britain.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner, 

1. APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A SLIVER OF TEXTILE FIBERS COMPRISING: A FIRST ROTATABLE SURFACE FOR FORMING A FIBROUS WEB, DOFFING MEANS FOR REMOVING SAID FIBROUS WEB FROM SAID FIRST ROTATABLE SURFACE, A PAIR OF ROTATABLE ROLLS COOPERATING TO FORM A NIP THROUGH WHICH THE FIBROUS WEB IS PASSED, A NARROW BELT, HAVING A RUN THEREOF ADJACENT THE NIP AND WITHIN THE AREA DEFINED BY THE EXTERIOR SURFACES OF SAID ROTATABLE ROLLS TO FORM A RESTRAINING CAVITY THEREBETWEEN, SAID BELT MOVING AT SUBSTANTIALLY RIGHT ANGLES TO THE DIRECTION OF THE FIBROUS MATERIAL, AS IT IS PASSED THROUGH SAID NIP AND SAID BELT MOVING AT A SURFACE LINEAR SPEED AT LEAST EQUAL TO THE SPEED OF SAID FIBROUS MATERIAL AS IT PASSES THROUGH SAID NIP TO CONTINUOUSLY CONVEY THE ENTIRE LEADING EDGE OF SAID FIBROUS WEB AT SUBSTANTIALLY RIGHT ANGLES TO THE DIRECTION IT IS MOVING WHEN PASSING THROUGH SAID NIP, WHEREBY THE WEB IS CONTINUOUSLY CONVERTED INTO A UNIFORM SLIVER OF TEXTILE FIBERS WHILE MAINTAINING THE FIBERS UNDER POSITIVE UNIFORM CONTROL. 